Death Note: The Last Name (Desu Noto: The Last Name)

2006, Japan

Director: Shusuke Kaneko

Writer: Tetsuya Oishi, From Tsugumi Oba, Takeshi Obata

Cast: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Ken'ichi Matsuyama, Shido Nakamura, Erika Toda, Takeshi Kaga

Producers: Toyoharu Fukuda, Takahiro Kobashi, Takahiro Sato

Distributor: NTV

Genre: Horror/Comedy

Web: www.warnerbros.co.jp/deathnote

Running Time: 141 minutes

                If I had graduated from a university program with assignments more difficult than trying not to fall asleep during Tarkovsky movies, I might be able to better explain the law of diminishing returns. And, perhaps I’d be able to apply it to something other than complaining about how most movie sequels suck. There are exceptions to this rule, to be sure. Army of Darkness, for example, and perhaps Spider-Man 2, but generally, entropy, or at least what I imagine entropy to be, applies, and most sequels are bigger but not better. The childishly explosive Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a prime example. If you like to play with Tonka Trucks and burn ants, you’ll appreciate the explosions and robot-oriented humor. But, if you were more impressed by the grim and gritty techo-nightmare of the original film, you’ll be disappointed by its successor. If you enjoyed the first Death Note, however, you’ll be happy to discover that Death Note: The Last Name is one of the few exceptions in which the sequel is greatly superior to the original.

                I wasn’t particularly impressed with the first Death Note film (see the Bin’s review here.) It wasn’t bad, but if it hadn’t ended in a cliffhanger that rankled my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder like an unwashed hand near an open wound, I probably wouldn’t have bothered. But the second film improves upon the first in the same way most sequels dishonor the memory of their predecessors: through excess and exaggeration. The annoying quirks and idiosyncrasies of the characters are expanded in the sequel, and become comic instead of irritating. The plot, which continues the story a high school student who finds a book that allows him to kill with impunity and the Encyclopedia Brown detective who hunts him down, is more complex, as a second Death Note book found by a teen pop idol is thrown in to the mix. Things spiral into absurdity, but it’s an endearing, exciting pile of nonsense that inspires a sort of giddy affinity for the characters. Director Shusuke Kaneko really comes alive with visual energy, and the film never lets up, evem during dialogue scenes. Two computer animated death god characters become interesting enough as characters that the viewer can ignore the fact that they look like early stage monsters from Final Fantasy games. Sadly, the film ends in a way the precludes any further sequels, meaning that the law of diminishing returns will likely avoid any further challenges to the loose definition I have in my mind.

Rating: 8 on 10

alkratina@comicbookbin.com